


Ochaco Uraraka: Zero Year

by FoxOnPie



Series: DC Dekuverse [6]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alt-Power, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different Powers, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-30 02:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19032565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FoxOnPie/pseuds/FoxOnPie
Summary: Prequel to "Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!" (knowledge of that story is recommended). Ochaco Uraraka, age thirteen. Hair: brown. Eyes: brown. Occupation: junior high school student/paranormal investigator. Status: Quirkless. Life expectancy: unknown.





	Ochaco Uraraka: Zero Year

Summer. It's hot because it's summer. It's summer because it's hot. It's hot, therefore it's summer.  
  
Things like "hot" and "summer" naturally go together, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The same could be said for things like "peanut butter" and "jelly"; "strawberries" and "chocolate"; "duct tape" and "wrong pronunciations"; "Heroes" and "Justice"; "Villains" and "Doom"; and so on and so forth.  
  
No, there's another important one to mention.  
  
Another two things that naturally go together are "abnormalities" and "exclusion from society".

* * *

[She could get through this.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp8MHZFC6JU&t=478s) The teacher wasn't even looking in her direction, and for once, she was happy for it. She just needed to lay low for a few minutes, and then class would be over and she'd be in the clear.  
  
"Excuse me, miss? I think you forgot to call on Uraraka today!" a girl called out while wearing a fox-like grin.  
  
"Oh, that's right," the teacher said. Naturally, Uraraka jumped back in her seat and barely stopped herself from falling over. "Uraraka, if you're so full of energy, you should be able to answer the question, yes?"  
  
"I-I don't know if those are really connected—"  
  
"Answer the question, Uraraka." Uraraka took in a swallow and stood up. She expected the worst to happen because the worst was always what happened.  
  
"U-Um, Cyborg?"  
  
"Wrong! Ms. Waraji?" The teacher directed attention back to the person who put Uraraka in the spotlight to begin with.  
  
"I believe the answer is Cy _pher_ ," Waraji said.  
  
"That is correct, Ms. Waraji; the technology-based assassin who worked with the Illuminati to try and destabilize computer systems around the world at the turn of the millennium was Cypher. Normally it'd be ridiculous for someone to make a simple mistake like that—in spite of how Victor Stone has been 'Robotman' longer than he was Cyborg—but considering that it's you, Ms. Uraraka, it makes perfect sense, don't you think?"  
  
"Yes, sir," Uraraka said as she sat back down in her seat.  
  
"Brainless _and_ talentless, all wrapped up together in a neat little bow. How _does_ she do it?" Waraji asked. Waraji and the rest of the class started laughing because of course they did. Just as she had expected, the worst was what had happened. With that, Uraraka fell back into her seat, doing her best to avoid what was routine until class finally let out.

* * *

Southern Tokyo's Den-en-chōfu is regarded as one of the most expensive places to live in all of Japan. Based on Ebenezer Howard's "Garden City," the district is famous for its houses constructed in Edwardian and Japanese neo-classical style, clean suburbs, and for being home to many of Japan's finest celebrities such as Ayumi Hamasaki, Max Matsuura, and the illustrious Yoso and Muso Yaoyorozu of the Yaoyorozu Zaibatsu. It is also home to one of the most well-regarded junior high schools in the entire country: Shiritano Girls Academy.  
  
Shiritano Girls Academy was founded in the 197X, when the worldwide movements of female empowerment and LGBT support partially spearheaded by Wonder Woman were at their peak. Japan, having long since obtained a surplus of economic stability following the aftermath of World War II, sought to capitalize on both facts by constructing a place where young woman would be free to explore and develop their burgeoning young minds and bodies with the best tools and assistance that money could buy. Thus led to the creation of Shiritano Girls Academy, a private junior high school scaled to the size of a university that catered to Japan's elite female youth.  
  
Then there was Ochaco Uraraka, the proverbial nail. Hundreds of young girls were walking through the halls dressed in the same uniform—a black dress with a white collar and white cufflinks—but she was the only one who stood out from the crowd. For starters, she was neither there because of her wealth nor because of a special talent. Her parents were poor construction workers, and Uraraka had no major successes in sports or studies worth mentioning. The only reason she was at Shiritano was because she just happened to accidentally pass the scholarship test her parents forced her to undergo.  
  
Walking through the halls, Uraraka felt like she was a sideshow attraction on display for the world to see. She was there by accident, and every girl could see it, every girl could smell it, every girl could taste it. They could do all of that, and none of them liked the experience. However, what was almost equal to their dislike of the experience was their liking of making their displeasure known.  
  
"O. Cha. Co. Chan!" Approaching her from behind were the three people who liked to put that into practice the most; the trio was led by the same girl who caused her most recent embarrassment in class. Her beige hair looked like it had the same consistency as straw or string, yet her face—still bearing a fox-like grin—was so flawless that it somehow made it work.  
  
"H-Hello, Waraji-san—" A hand from Waraji came very close to hitting Uraraka in the face. It happened a lot, yet she never managed to stop herself from flinching.  
  
"Come on, haven't we been over this? We're both young girls trying to be friendly with each other, so there's no reason for family names. Now try it again."  
  
"Itoko… chan?"  
  
"Good girl! Ain't she a good girl, Tomoko-chan? Kotoko-chan?" Waraji moved her hand away from Uraraka's face and started patting the top of her head with it.  
  
"Get her to roll over, too!" one of her friends laughed. She had an athletic build—as shown by the legs showcased in a shorter than normal dress—that Uraraka knew she liked to use to her advantage and wore a head of bright green hair with a glittery substance as a permanent fixture; they were two physical traits that stood in direct contrast of one another, yet she still somehow made it work.  
  
"Come on Tomoko, she's nowhere _near_ that _well-trained_ ," the third one said, the words cutting into Uraraka a little. She was the shortest of the trio, yet that didn't stop her from making herself be heard as much as possible; not that that would have been hard to accomplish, what with how each strand of her hair was shaped like a black knife and the cleavage she made a point of showing off was covered in dictionary excerpts.  
  
"Um, the next period is going to start soon, so—"  
  
"Oh I know. I wouldn't miss it for the world, so I'll make this quick," Waraji said, cutting Uraraka off. "Me and the girls are feeling a little peckish, so we were gonna go get a quick snack before class starts. You mind lending us a little cash?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Come on, it's the least you can do after how I saved you in history, right? If the teacher had been the one to catch you, he would have been steaming, but me exposing you softened the blow." It was a blow that never had to occur, though. "Don't I deserve a little compensation for being a saint?"  
  
"But you still haven't paid me back for last week."  
  
"I know, and I'm super sorry about that. We've just been super strapped for cash lately, you know?"  
  
"Probably better than you." That was an undeniable fact. Itoko Waraji was the heiress to the largest sandal manufacturing company in Japan, Tomoko Asase was the daughter of A-list movie stars, and Kotoko Satsugai's father was a weapons contractor for the JSDF. None of them ever had money troubles, and Uraraka was in the right when she pointed that out.  
  
That didn't stop Waraji from frowning at her.  
  
"Yeah, that's right. You aren't a _real_ member of our world; you're basically an alien. You don't know a thing about how people like us function, but here a quick tip: the strong—that's us—prey on the weak—that's you." Asase stepped over and pushed Uraraka against a wall. None of the dozens of other people in the halls tried to get involved. "Graduating from this school will be the only thing that will let you even imagine yourself in a seat of power, so if you consider this a tutorial for how you might need to behave, then I'm being quite generous, aren't I?"  
  
"W-Well—"  
  
["Hey. Try looking at me when I talk to you."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2TASacP2SI) All of a sudden, long pieces of straw shot out of Waraji's sleeveless arms and curled themselves around Uraraka's head, pulling on it until the two of them were eye to eye once more. "See this? I'm allowed to do this because I have _power_. I mean, I didn't need to have a Quirk to do this, but it certainly helps. You understand, right? Oh, wait, you _don't_."  
  
That's what it all came down to, wasn't it?  
  
"How much? I only have 1,100 yen—"  
  
"Whoa! 1,100 yen's exactly what we need! How's _that_ for lucky?" Waraji was once again wearing her patronizing smile. There was no way out of it, so Uraraka fetched her wallet and pulled out the 1,100 yen—divided into a random assortment of coins.  
  
"A little too retro for my liking, but it'll do," Asase said.  
  
"Yeah, but that's about as much as you could expect from a _Quirkless peasant_ ," Satsugai said. The words cut into Uraraka once again like a rusty knife. She dealt with that the best she could.  
  
"Thanks again, Ochaco-chan!" Waraji said, she and her friends laughing as they walked off.  
  
This kind of result was to be expected, Uraraka reasoned. Those three were above everyone else in her year. They could say what they wanted, do what they wanted, even dress how they wanted, no matter how far it deviated from the standard uniform. Those were the privileges allotted to people like the Terrible Trio. Especially when you were—As Satsugai felt obligated to point out—a Quirkless nobody.  
  
Uraraka decided that she was just going to sit down until the next class started. She didn't have it in her to move if she didn't need to.

* * *

With enough time, it became time for the next class: philosophy. Philosophy was a favorite amongst the girls of Shiritano Girls Academy, including the Terrible Trio. Not because the curriculum particularly stood out amongst the other classes, as the curriculum was rather bog standard.  
  
"—as such, one should always be wary of someone who's had their soul extracted from their body, even for a second. No matter how in line with society they try to present themselves as, there will always be something fundamentally wrong with them. Of course, that's not to say they won't be fun at parties; just, you know, keep them away from the punch bowl." What made it so popular with the girls was the instructor, Mr. Johei Kurobi. One of the few male teachers at the school and by far the youngest out of all of them, and with his chiseled face and muscular physique, he was as young as he was handsome. In addition, the man was jovial and kindhearted, always doing what he could to keep the mood light and be everyone's friend. Because of that, he was the favorite teacher of the girls there and someone who was always the second or third party in their romantic fantasies.  
  
Uraraka both could and couldn't relate to those feelings. For one reason or another, she never saw Mr. Kurobi's appeal from a romantic or sexual perspective, yet she still felt herself being drawn to him. For starters, philosophy was one of the few classes she didn't struggle with; she could just go over her notes a bit and have that be enough to get a good grade, as opposed to how she could be up all night studying with Aizen for other classes and still do poorly.  
  
"All right, now there was a Joker who had a theory about why Batman exposes his mouth. Which one was it, and what was the theory? Let's see… Uraraka-san?"  
  
"Y-Yes!" Uraraka said, jumping up in her chair. "Um, the Joker in question was the sixth Joker, Craggle-face Joker. As for his theory, it was, it was… I can't remember. Sorry." The other girls in the class started laughing, but Mr. Kurobi quickly quieted them down.  
  
"The theory that Craggle-face Joker came up with was that Batman did it to mock his enemies. It's something worth thinking about when contemplating why people—Heroes or otherwise—perform seemingly innocuous actions around those they're connected with. It's an important thing to think about, but _there's nothing wrong with not knowing that_ , okay people? We're all here to learn, so no need to beat up yourselves or others for being a little slow."  
  
That was another trait of Mr. Kurobi that Uraraka liked: he was the only teacher in the entire school who was nice to her. Most of the teachers at Shiritano were no different than the students they taught, so they were indifferent to Uraraka at best and enjoyed seeing her be humiliated at worst. Mr. Kurobi, on the other hand, always treated her with respect, never going out of his way to put her down for making a mistake or stepping out of line. Even though she was still surrounded by the Terrible Trio and a bunch of other people who made her miserable, philosophy was still one of the few times during the day when she could relax.  
  
Within time, class came to an end and the school day was over. Everyone shuffled out of the room while Mr. Kurobi reminded them that their essays on the moral ramifications of alien societies often mirroring human ones were due in a few days. Uraraka had just finished packing up her books when Mr. Kurobi called her over to his desk. Before Uraraka could ask him what he wanted, he reached a hand out and pulled a piece of straw out of her hair with incredible delicacy and precision.  
  
"Waraji-san again?" Mr. Kurobi asked.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it," Uraraka said.  
  
"You can't get any help if you don't talk about it, you know?"  
  
"Do you think talking about it would actually do anything, though?" Mr. Kurobi stared at her for a bit before letting out a sigh.  
  
"Yeah, I guess I should respect you enough to not give you empty platitudes. Trying to confront bullying… that's always a tough road to try and go down, especially at a school like this. Pretty much everyone here comes from the same background, so when they see an outsider, they typically end up united in their treatment of said outsider. Because of that, no one believes that anyone's doing something wrong, and the concerns of the few outsiders end up falling to the wayside."  
  
"Yeah, that's not wrong." After being at Shiritano for a year and change, Uraraka fully understood the reality of that.  
  
"I know that telling you to stay strong probably comes off as another empty platitude, but it's really the only thing I can do. Well, that and this." Mr. Kurobi took out his wallet and put three thousand yen out on the table. More than twice what Waraji took from her and divided amongst the cleanest and crispest bills Uraraka had ever seen.  
  
"Sir, I-I can't—"  
  
["Please, I insist.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp8MHZFC6JU&t=2036s) I'm one of these people, so I've got too much of this to count, remember? You weren't able to buy lunch, I hate to see a kid go hungry, so it all works out." Uraraka stared at the bills and weighed everything before her. On the one hand, it felt like there should be something inherently wrong with taking money from your teacher, no matter how nice he was. On the other hand, she was hungry, and three thousand yen could buy her a lot of cheap food. One option clearly outweighed the other one.  
  
After a few seconds, Uraraka pocketed the bills with a quiet "Thank you."  
  
"Don't mention it. Just try to remember that I'm in your corner, even if I can't do much more than be a soundboard with kind words and a handsome jawline." Mr. Kurobi smiled and Uraraka could have sworn that the teeth above that handsome jawline sparkled a bit. Nevertheless, Uraraka gave her own smile, bowed her head, and left the classroom feeling the happiest she had been since summer vacation ended.

* * *

[Forty-three seconds after leaving the classroom, Uraraka was once again pinned to the wall by Asase.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQDt51TsGZM&t=938s)  
  
"So, feeling pretty bold, are we, Ochaco-chan?" Waraji asked, nary a trace of the fake smile on her face. "Summer vacation ends, and you decide to what? Make your long awaited debut? Try and stop being a little weakling? Something else that's a complete load of crap? Huh? Which is it?"  
  
"I-Itoko-chan, what are you talking about?" Uraraka asked. Asase pushed her harder into the wall.  
  
"I'm talking about you getting all buddy-buddy with Mr. Kurobi!"  
  
"What?" Uraraka was thoroughly confused.  
  
"Don't play dumb, bitch," Asase said. "We saw you chatting it up with Mr. Kurobi after class let out."  
  
"You've got a lot of nerve messing with stuff that doesn't belong to you, you know that?" Satsugai asked. She was the only one of the three not scowling, yet her smile just made her words all the more unsettling.  
  
"Look, I wasn't trying to do anything," Uraraka said. "We were just talking about… stuff, and that's it. I don't even—" Waraji slapped her across the face.  
  
"Can't believe you're not even good at lying. What did they even teach you out in the boonies? Pretty pathetic, Ochaco-chan," Waraji said.  
  
"I-I-I-I'm not—"  
  
"You think you can actually start something? Please. What the hell would Mr. Kurobi gain from a stupid girl whose breasts have barely even started growing? Oh my God, please don't tell me he's actually into that!"  
  
""No way that's true,"" Asase and Satsugai said.  
  
"Yeah, you're right. Mr. Kurobi's just a man—a devilishly handsome man—and I guess all men are weak like that, even if it changes how others perceive them. So riddle me this, Ochaco-chan: was three thousand yen, an amount of money I wouldn't even wipe myself with, enough for you to drag Mr. Kurobi's name through the mud just a little bit?"  
  
Uraraka felt like she was going to vomit. It felt as if the wall Asase was pushing her against was reaching out and coiling around her body. Or maybe it felt like the floor was opening up and sucking her down into depths unknown. Either way, it suddenly became hard for her to breath; she kept opening and closing her mouth, but it just felt like every molecule of oxygen was a dumbbell that forced more and more weight into her throat.  
  
"Didn't I tell you to look at me when I talk to you?" Waraji asked. "Don't you have any respect, at all?!" Just like earlier in the day, long pieces of straw shot out of Waraji's sleeveless arms towards Uraraka's head. However, while the straw from earlier moved in a way that was only meant to constrict, anyone paying attention could tell that the current batch of straw moved in a way that was meant to assault. It was meant to assault, and Uraraka, caught up in a wave of panic, had no idea what she could do about it.  
  
But then, as if by some bizarre twist of fate, the choice was taken out of her hands by someone else's hand. Before Waraji could make any contact with Uraraka, someone grabbed her arm and pulled it back behind her head. Waraji snapped her head back, but her mouth closed shut as soon as she looked at the person grabbing her arm.  
  
"Bullying is such an unsightly affair." The person in question was a student like them with long, pale gray hair, her bangs topping a furrowed brow. Her face had a look of refinement and intelligence to it that one usually only saw in experienced adults, and even then only rarely.  
  
Uraraka didn't know who this girl was, but a single sentence out of her mouth got the Terrible Trio to move away from her, so she wasn't going to complain.  
  
"T-This is a private affair," Waraji said.  
  
"Just because the passersby choose to ignore it doesn't make that true," the girl said. "Now if you'd be so kind as to leave the poor girl alone, we can all be on our way to pushing this unsightly incident back into the deepest depths of our collective unconscious."  
  
"Just where the hell do you get off—" the girl cut Asase off by putting a finger to her lips and repeatedly shushing her, her glare never faltering.  
  
"Please don't make me repeat myself. You wouldn't like me when I'm repeating myself." If Uraraka wasn't mistaken, the Terrible Trio were all breaking out in a cold sweat.  
  
"Let's go, girls. I'm bored with this, anyway," Waraji said. She waved a finger at Uraraka's left and the three took off in that direction.  
  
"This isn't over, Intelli!" Satsugai shouted, prompting a smack in the back of the head from Asase. They were gone, and Uraraka found herself able to breathe again.  
  
["Are you all right?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qoJ-kklefQ&t=438s) Intelli asked. Without Uraraka realizing it, she had stepped in front of her and put her face rather close to Uraraka's. All of a sudden, Uraraka had trouble breathing again.  
  
"I-I-I'm used to this, so I'll live," Uraraka said, trying the best she could to avoid eye contact.  
  
"This is hardly the type of thing one should become used to."  
  
"Y-Yeah, well, what can you do, right?" Uraraka tried and failed to laugh it off. "Anyway, um, thank you for helping me back there; you're the only person who's ever done something like that since I started going here. I-I don't want you to pity me or anything, I'm just stating a fact! S-So if we're done here, I need to get back to my dorm, but I look forward to occasionally passing each other in the halls and giving small nods of acknowledge—"  
  
Intelli cupped Uraraka's face and forced eye contact between the two of them. She had really nice, slanted blue eyes that she couldn't stop looking at. Really, Uraraka thought that her entire face was nice to look at in a "desperately-trying-to-not-make-this-look-creepy" kind of way.  
  
It was also said nice face that slowly lost the seriousness previously displayed until Intelli was wearing a wide-eyed goofy grin.  
  
"You're perfect!" Intelli shouted.  
  
"No I'm not!" Uraraka shouted on reflex.  
  
"Yes, I can see it, I can sense it! I've been searching for someone with your characteristics for quite some time now, and now we've been brought together! A miraculous twist of fate, don't you think? By the way, what's your name?"  
  
"O-Ochaco Uraraka."  
  
"My name is Saiko Intelli. It's a pleasure to meet you, Uraraka-san."  
  
"S-Same." Uraraka wasn't sure if that was true, but this had certainly turned into something else.  
  
"Uraraka-san, would you care to join me on an excursion tonight? This isn't something you need to do in response to my earlier interference; I have plans for tonight, and I just want you to be part of them."  
  
"Wha?" Uraraka's thoughts were scattered to the wind and moving a mile a minute. Between the relief of having the Terrible Trio running away from her and every aspect of confusion that Intelli stirred up, it was hard to know what to stay focused on, as giving attention to any specific thing could send her down a path she didn't remotely understand.  
  
Either way, at some point, Uraraka let out an "Ah'm okay witthat," told Intelli where her dorm room was, and the excursion, as it were, was set.

* * *

[That night, Uraraka stood still in her dorm room,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQDt51TsGZM&t=2195s) too nervous to do anything other than stare at her door. Aizen was studying in the library like she always did, so at the very least, she wouldn't have to fumble through an explanation of what she was doing, and she didn't even have a good answer for that.  
  
As soon as Uraraka managed to stumble back into her room in a daze, she went onto the school's website to try and find information about her impromptu savior, and the process just left her even more confused. Saiko Intelli was a third-year at Shiritano—now she felt stupid for not addressing her as "senpai"—and she came from a family of philanthropists and tech moguls who had investments in nearly every major business around the world; her wealth made the combined wealth of the Terrible Trio look as if the latter belonged in the poor house. Not only that, but she had perfect grades, was a star athlete, had won numerous academic awards since elementary school, and was an all-around beauty—the website didn't say that, the thought just came to mind after looking at more pictures of her and wouldn't go away. This girl was the definitive star of Shiritano Girls Academy, and for some reason, she was involving Uraraka in her life.  
  
At that moment, there was a knock at the door.  
  
_She's here!_ Uraraka thought. _Oh my God, she's actually here! I-I just open the door, right? That's what I'm supposed to do, right? But she's so cool! She thinks I'm cool, but that'll probably stop if spends more time with me. Do I even want to spend more time with her? What if she starts laughing at me? And my outfit! It's just some stupid thing I threw together at the last minute. I'm trying to pass off this rip in my skirt as something fashionable, but it's just that I couldn't afford to throw it away! She'd see right through that, wouldn't she? Wouldn't she?_  
  
At that moment, the door opened all on its own. Uraraka screamed in her head as loudly as she could.  
  
"Uraraka-san, you were taking too long, so I picked your lock. I hope you don't mind," came the voice of Saiko Intelli.  
  
"N-N-Not at all, Intelli-senpai! What's a little light breaking and entering among acquaintances, right?" Uraraka asked.  
  
"Glad you see it my way. Wait, did you just call me 'senpai'? Please keep doing that; it makes me feel important." The door swung open and Uraraka braced herself for whatever sort of amazing outfit Intelli would most certainly be wearing. She braced herself for that, but then felt that it was mostly for naught when she saw that Intelli was dressed like a jungle explorer, complete with the typical hat, boots, and rucksack. It was only "mostly" for naught because Intelli was wearing cargo shorts and the entire outfit did a good job of hugging her body, meaning that if Uraraka could actually manage to say something, it would be something stupid.  
  
"Are we going to the Temple of Doom?" That would suffice.  
  
"Is that a reference to something?"  
  
"Nevermind. What-What are we doing, Intelli-senpai?"  
  
"I told you, Uraraka-san: we're going on an excursion. An excursion of unparalleled discovery!"  
  
"I don't remember that one part—" Uraraka lost her words when Intelli grabbed her by the wrist, pulled her out into the hall, and shut the door to her room. Intelli then pulled a folded piece of paper out of her breast pocket that was quickly unfolded into a hand drawn map of the school so large that she had to put it on the floor. All of the buildings and amenities of Shiritano were drawn with perfect accuracy, and the map was also covered in various writings, arrows and symbols that Uraraka knew she wouldn't be able to decipher.  
  
"Tell me Uraraka-san, have you heard of Shiritano's Seven Wonders?" Intelli asked as she smoothed out the map.  
  
"Not really, but I'm guessing that they're the same as any school's Seven Wonders: seven mysterious phenomena that aren't actually real and can be easily explained through logic."  
  
"Oh but they _are_ real. I've spent my entire time at this school researching each and every report on the Seven Wonders. I've studied the environments of the sightings, interviewed people who've experienced them, and cross referenced story after story going all the way back to the school's founding. At this point, I can say with virtual utmost certainty that the Seven Wonders exist, and I've made it my mission to take down each and every one of them."  
  
"You have? Why?"  
  
["Because, Uraraka-san… I'm going to become an explorer!" ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp8MHZFC6JU&t=1143s)All of a sudden, the two were hit with dead air.  
  
"Come again?" Uraraka asked.  
  
"Ever since I was a child, it's been my dream to uncover all of the untold mysteries of the world. I want to be a modern day Kent Nelson or Carter Hall or Dan Garrett, scouring jungles and abandoned ruins for treasures of the past and clues to the inner workings of the universe and beyond. As such, I've decided to make uncovering the truth of the Seven Wonders of Shiritano Girls Academy my thesis project, so to speak, and I'd love for you to help me."  
  
"Y-You do? Why?"  
  
"Why not? You seem like you have a good head on your shoulders; like you might be quick on your feet; like you might be plump enough for monsters to want to go after you ahead of me; like you know how throw a punch decent enough to bloody a nose—"  
  
"Wait, what did you say about—"  
  
"But more importantly, I get a feeling from you that tells me you're a person who wants to accomplish something with their life and can't stand the thought of going out as nothing. Am I wrong?"  
  
Uraraka didn't comment. She didn't want to comment. Commenting on something like that wouldn't do her any good.  
  
"I-I don't think I have any time left to be important."  
  
"Nonsense, we're both in the prime of our lives. Just come along with me and every little thing will be all right."  
  
"My grades aren't really all that great."  
  
"You'll learn on the go. Street smarts are probably more important for this, anyway. Just come along with me and every little thing will be all right."  
  
"Everyone makes fun of me for being poor."  
  
"That's a rather foolish thing to do; money isn't everything. Just come along with me and every little thing will be all right."  
  
"I'm Quirkless!" Once again, the two were hit with dead air. Intelli stared at the quivering Uraraka with her slanted eyes, her face not conveying a single hint of emotion.  
  
"Oh, neat." Intelli folded up the map with noticeable speed and put it back in her breast pocket. "Should we get going?"  
  
"Didn't you hear me?"  
  
"Didn't _you_ hear _me_?" It was then and there that Uraraka noticed another part of Intelli's character, one that—retroactively—was present in whatever persona she was displaying: resolve. The exact thing Uraraka had wanted since she was a kid.  
  
Uraraka nodded her head, shut her door, and followed Intelli down the hall.

* * *

The Shiritano Girls Academy Science Lab boasted a reputation of having some of the finest equipment in all of Japan. Everything was cutting edge and up to date, with the materials and equipment being replaced the second a newer and better version was released for purchase, public or otherwise. That was to be expected, as the students who focused on science at Shiritano often went on to become masters in the field of science; Kimiyo Hoshi—the Alpha Lyraen Hero Doctor Light—was one example of a graduate doing just that. It was also the Science Lab where Uraraka and Intelli went to in pursuit of the first of the Seven Wonders.  
  
According to Intelli's research, each of the Seven Wonders only appeared at the tail end of specific months, and with August almost being over, now would be the time of the appearance of the Moaning Air Waves.  
  
The legend went as such: on warm nights in the Science Lab, air waves would sometimes intensify to the point that they would become visible to the human eye in random areas. Those air waves would come together in what appeared to be the shape of a human person, and said shape would reach its hands out to whoever was nearby while letting out a series of moans. Most girls ran away before they could be touched, but the ones who couldn't get away in time said that they felt drained of energy afterwards and couldn't move much at all for three days.  
  
Uraraka didn't like thinking about something like that, and she didn't like how much Intelli was smiling as she recounted the legend.  
  
"I just wish I could have gotten more details on the physical appearance of the Moaning Air Waves. It would have been nice to know if they were handsome to look at before going into this, right?" Intelli asked as she fished a flashlight out of her rucksack.  
  
"No, no it wouldn't," Uraraka said.  
  
"Well, to each their own, even if one person's own is vastly superior to another's."  
  
"Right." Uraraka was too focused on her surroundings to pay it too much mind. The architecture of the Science Lab always looked a little too creepy for Uraraka's liking, but in the dead of night, with most of the lights off and darkness being the main thing filling the halls, it felt like she was in a haunted house. It was far from an ideal situation for her to be in.  
  
["Now where's the best place to go? Let me think."](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJHppNnNZL4) Intelli put a finger to her temple. As she moved her finger around in a circle, a dark green light appeared to envelop it and Intelli started humming a soft tune. After a few seconds, Intelli stopped humming and the green light vanished.  
  
"Okay, according to my research, the Moaning Air Waves appear near windows in the coolest parts of the building. That means we need to go to the chemistry room, the upper west hallway, bathroom next to the water fountain that always splashes your chest if you press the button too hard, and so on and so forth. We'll start with those three and I'll relay others as we go along."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I said—"  
  
"No, I got what you said—I got most of it, anyway—but what was that thing you were doing with your finger?"  
  
"Oh that? That was my Metahuman ability? When I press a finger against my temple, I can temporarily heighten my intelligence to supergenius levels and come up with great strategies like this. The effect stays for a few minutes after I deactivate it, but I get a migraine if I use it for too long."  
  
"W-Wow! That's incredible! You could totally be a Hero with a power like that... Intelli-senpai..."  
  
"Something wrong?"  
  
"Nothing. I just made myself sad, is all."  
  
"Let's walk and talk; the night is only young for so long." The two started walking, but even though they had gotten to the bathroom next to the water fountain that always splashes your chest if you press the button too hard, they had done a noticeable lack of talking. They went into the bathroom and found nothing of consequence, and after that, Intelli had pulled a long stick out of her rucksack and pressed the button for the water fountain from afar.  
  
"Yep. If I was using that much pressure with my finger, it definitely would have splashed my chest," Intelli said.  
  
"I'm kind of stupid, Intelli-senpai," Uraraka said. It was the first sentence she had said in some time, and the suddenness of it made it come off as something of a non sequitur.  
  
"That feels like something of a non sequitur, but go on."  
  
"Me having the Metagene and becoming a Metahuman? That's pretty much the only way that I could have any powers, but it's just a pipe dream. It's not like in the old days when someone could have their Metagene spontaneously activate as an adult. Nowadays, if nothing happens by the time you're six or seven or even eight in some weird cases, then you're probably not going to get anything. Still, a small, stupid part of me keeps hoping that I haven't missed my shot. People always say that we live in a society where everyone is capable of achieving anything they dream about, so why haven't I been able to make it work?"  
  
["Could it be that there's just something fundamentally wrong with you?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rRDgJb5wPw) was Intelli's blunt reply. "I don't mean it as an insult or anything, I'm just trying to be logical. Abnormal has been the new normal for decades, so if you can't fall into that, then maybe there's just something about you that makes it impossible for you to fit in with society."  
  
The words hit her in a vastly different way than Satsugai's words ever did, but they still had impact, nonetheless.  
  
"I think we should split up. Cover more ground." Uraraka wanted to say she was leaving, but she couldn't force the words out of her mouth.  
  
"Good call." Intelli fished another flashlight out of her rucksack and gave it to Uraraka. "Meet outside in five?" Uraraka gave a deceitful nod and the two split apart.

* * *

_This was stupid_ , Uraraka told herself. _Coming here was stupid. So, so, so, so, so stupid. There aren't any monsters here; obviously monsters are real, but there aren't any here. What was I going to do, aimlessly follow some random girl around just because she was nice to me? That last part didn't even last twelve hours. Stupid. I'm so, so, so, so, so stupid!_  
  
It was debatable how much of that was actually true, but the point was that Uraraka believed all of it, and how healthy a practice that was was rather subject. Those were the kinds of thoughts occupying Uraraka's headspace as she wandered aimlessly around the Science Lab, partially because she was in a funk, partially because she forgot how to get to the exit.  
  
In spite of her funk, she still had enough awareness to notice that she had wandered into the upper west hallway, one of the locations she remembered Intelli had marked for investigation.  
  
"How did I even get here?" Uraraka asked herself. "I wanted to leave and go back to my room, but… fine. It's fine. I'll just go back downstairs and leave. No big deal."  
  
Uraraka stopped moving, for out of nowhere, there came a sound. It sounded like a bird, sounded like a proper "hyoo hyoo," but it was deeper and slower than a bird cry should be. Almost as if it were a moan.  
  
[Uraraka did what she could to put the thought to bed.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQDt51TsGZM&t=1084s) She didn't want to get so caught up in everything that she would actually think that the Moaning Air Waves were real. She didn't want to think that, but the constant "hyoo hyoo" made that a daunting task. The moans kept getting louder and louder; wet footsteps sounded in her ears; a cold breeze foreign to the summer air blew in from the window she only now noticed was open. It was a kind of fear completely different from what the Terrible Trio instilled in her on a near daily basis, very much indescribable.  
  
For some reason, Uraraka resolved to turn around and face whatever was coming towards her. She didn't want to do anything of the sort, but she didn't feel compelled to do anything other than that. Slowly, very slowly, Uraraka turned around to face whatever was approaching her, only to discover that there was absolutely nothing coming up from the rear. Uraraka breathed a sigh of relief. It was just my imagination, she told herself; there was nothing to be afraid of.  
  
"Hyoo hyoo." The second she turned back around, an inhuman creature was standing in front of her. It had the shape of a human, but its body looked like it was made out of black clouds. It had no face to speak of, but it was still letting out a constant moan of "hyoo hyoo" as Uraraka stared at it like a deer in the headlights. The whatever this was standing in front of her had to be the Moaning Air Waves.  
  
"Hyoo hyoo." Before Uraraka could react, it acted out the rest of the legend by grabbing her, though she didn't remember Intelli say anything about being pinned to the floor. That wasn't worth thinking about though, at least in comparison to how she dropped her flashlight and could feel the life being drained from her. She knew that she needed to get away, but its grip was too strong, and she couldn't muster up the energy to try and stand up. Anyone could see that there was no way of her getting out of her situation.  
  
Just another addition to the long list of things Uraraka couldn't do, it seemed.

* * *

[When Ochaco Uraraka was a child, she wanted to be a Hero not for herself, but for others.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjCmY2AaDfg) The main motivation for that dream came from her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Uraraka ran a small construction company in the Mie Prefecture, and while they made enough money to get by, their business was in the red far more often than was ideal. Uraraka wanted to help them by joining the company one day, but her parents forbade her from working with them when she became older so she could be free to pursue her own dreams. In spite of that, helping them was her dream, so she figured that since Heroes are able to make a lot of money, she could help lessen her parents' financial burden by becoming one.  
  
Uraraka's second motivation, which was equal to the first in her mind, came about ten years ago, in the summer of the year 20XX. Uraraka was a wide-eyed young girl who held her parents' hands while walking out of the local movie theater. The three of them had just gotten out of a viewing of the newest _Wonder Woman_ movie. Despite her parents earlier misgivings, they both agreed that Kaitlin Olson made for a fantastic Wonder Woman, though she still had nothing on the Oscar-winning performance of Danielle Fishel.  
  
Uraraka didn't understand all of that, nor did she really pay it much mind. She was too busy being enamored with everything she had seen in the last two hours and seventeen minutes. She had heard about the then Number One Hero before and seen a few videos about her online, but this was the first time she had ever engaged in anything lengthy and epic that involved her. For the first time in her life, Uraraka understood that Wonder Woman was a true force for good and justice, someone who always did what she could to make the world a better place and spread peace to all mankind; she'd never say it out loud, but she was doing all of that stuff before All Might made it look cool.  
  
Beyond all of that, what really caught Uraraka's attention were the supporting and background characters. Every time Wonder Woman threw her mighty shield or punched Ubermensch, Horned Owl or Kamikaze in the face, both her allies and the civilians she was protecting smiled and cheered for her. That was what Uraraka loved most about the movie: seeing scene after scene of Wonder Woman making everyone around her happy.  
  
In her mind, that was what it meant to be a Hero, and she knew then and there that she was going to become someone just like Wonder Woman when she grew up.

* * *

["Yeah, y'all best be givin' up on that,"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOqwMvwAKvg) was what the local doctor told Uraraka in response to her childhood fantasy. They were just words, but they felt like he was punching her in the face.  
  
"Whaddya mean, Doc? Yer sayin' there's somethin' wrong wit' Ochaco?" asked Uraraka's father.  
  
"She's the only one in 'er class that ain't got a Quirk or nothin' like it," said Uraraka's mother. "We thought she was just a late bloomer and wanted ta get a checkup just ta make sure—"  
  
"Probably shoulda gone and dun that earlier," the doctor cut in. He grabbed a folder off of his desk and opened it up to reveal an X-ray of a foot. "Ya see, all people with Quirks only got one joint in their pinky toes, but ya see here? Ochaco-chan's got two joints in her toes, so that means she ain't never gonna develop a Quirk."  
  
Another punch right into Uraraka's young, impressionable face.  
  
"Yer sayin' she's Quirkless?" Uraraka's father asked.  
  
"'Fraid so. There ain't no history of magic in yer bloodline, so that prolly won't work out well. Jumpin' in a pool'a toxic waste's a bad idea too, 'less yer fixin' fer yer daughter to get cancer or somethin'. There's always the chance that she could be a Metahuman, but it's impossible ta scan the body for Metal before the Metagen activates, so we won't know for sure. Still, don't get yer hopes up; nowadays, Metahumans tend ta get their powers 'round the same time as Quirk users, so the odds'a her bein' a Metahuman are pretty small. Ochaco-chan should prolly just learn ta live as the abnormal normal."  
  
There it was: final confirmation that she couldn't be like Wonder Woman.  
  
There it was: the third punch to the face.

* * *

Discrimination based on superpowers has been a common aspect of life since the Golden Age of Heroes, and it only got worse when Quirks appeared and made superpowers more than a rare occurrence. It started with people who had powers being treated as pariahs, but as powers became the norm, the pariahs became the people who somehow managed to avoid having them.  
  
Uraraka was one of those people, one of the ten percent of people who were Quirkless and had no powers to speak of. The second word about her condition got out in her small town, the kids started picking on her and making her an outcast. They'd exclude her from games, take her snacks away from her, call her names to her face and behind her back, what have you. All of that, even though she was the exact same Uraraka as the Uraraka who never went to the doctor and still had hopes of becoming a Hero. It hurt Uraraka to be treated to poorly, but she wanted to be strong and endure it, especially when it wasn't completely out of the question for her to become a Hero.  
  
One day, however, her endurance stopped being worth anything. She got into a fight with a girl who took her Wonder Woman doll and came home with a muddy skirt and a bloody lip. She tried to tell her parents that she was fine and that they should be happy she managed to stand up for herself at all, but they wouldn't have any of it. They called up the school, told them what happened, and demanded that the issue be dealt with immediately.  
  
That same day, the principal of Uraraka's school called the parents of the girl. They were told the situation and promised the principal that they would talk with their daughter about treating others with respect.  
  
The following day, Uraraka had the contents of her backpack emptied out into a garbage can before she was duct taped to a bathroom stall for being a "no good Quirkless snitch."  
  
The following week, Uraraka's parents had her transferred to another school, one that, in their words, "would have people who'd treat her with the respect she deserves." It didn't. People kept bullying her, her parents kept getting involved, and their involvement kept making things worse. They didn't seem to understand that, though. Everytime she got bullied, they'd sit her down and talk about how she was just as special as everyone else and how they were going to do whatever they could to make sure people knew that.  
  
That was wrong, though. Uraraka wasn't like everyone else. She was Quirkless; it wasn't an ideal life, but it was one she could live with. She could live with it, but her parents wouldn't stop drawing attention to her, and that was what made the bullying worse than it had to be. She just wanted to live her life without ruffling any feathers, but they kept putting her in the spotlight and making a spectacle out of her state of being. They even made her go to a fancy school on the other side of the country to "help ensure that she'd have a good future," but all it did was make her present even more unbearable.  
  
All she wanted was to live her life in peace, but no one was letting her, and all she was getting from the constant meddling of others was being choked out by a demon cloud.

* * *

["That… ain't… fair!"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4TDJx0k03w) In present day, Uraraka shouted that as she bit down on one of the Moaning Air Waves' hands. Naturally, there was no blood to be shed, but much to Uraraka's enjoyment and surprise, her bite got the Moaning Air Waves to loosen its grip long enough for her to break free and kick it away from her.  
  
"Hyoo hyoo," moaned the Moaning Air Waves.  
  
"Why do I hafta deal with this kinda stuff just fer tryin' ta live ma life? Why are y'all sayin' that ya want me ta be free if yer just gunna weigh 'n' shackle me down?!"  
  
The Moaning Air Waves simply moaned out a "Hyoo hyoo" once more; it didn't make much sense as an answer, but Uraraka wasn't really directing her questions at it. Its arms stretched out to grab at Uraraka from afar, but she picked up her flashlight and smacked its hands with it. It kept reaching out to grab her, and she kept swiping at it; it was a foolproof system up until the Moaning Air Waves extended its lower body to sweep her leg. Uraraka fell back to the ground once more, and the Moaning Air Waves stomped over and reached both of its arms out towards her neck.  
  
Second contact was never made, however, on account of what appeared to be a bo staff flying through the air and hitting it in the side of the head so hard that it also fell to the ground. The bo staff nearly hit the floor, but before it could, it was picked up by one Saiko Intelli.  
  
"Intelli-senpai?" Uraraka asked.  
  
"Pretty neat bo staff, right? It's a Hamato school original; you can tell by the bindings and the sparse usage of nanotech in the shaft," Intelli said. "This was a really good birthday present. Lightweight, ancient, good for bludgeoning people, etcetera, etcetera. Put an asterisk next to that last part as I demonstrate."  
  
Intelli then proceeded to repeatedly whack the Moaning Air Waves in the back with her bo staff. It kept moaning out a constant stream of "Hyoo hyoo," but this time it was in an obvious panic. The barrage of swings didn't cease, but in the midst of it all, a sort of tendril-like object shot out from its lower back. It coiled itself around Intelli's waste and lifted her into the air, right through the open window. Uraraka knew that it was going to drop Intelli down who knew how many stories until she cracked her skull open on the courtyard lawn. She couldn't allow that, she couldn't accept that. The flashlight was the only weapon she had at her disposal, and it wasn't exactly an effective one, but as she stood up off the floor, she realized that she'd just have to force effectiveness into it.  
  
Before anything could be forced into anything, however, the sound of additional moaning filled the air. It wasn't the constant stream of "Hyoo hyoo" that the Moaning Air Waves were letting out, but something softer and less animalistic. The air around the Moaning Air Waves' tendril shimmered a pale blue until it morphed into another humanoid shape. Uraraka was all set to have a heart attack at the prospect of having to fight two of them, but before her heartbeat could become erratic enough for concern, the second creature grabbed the Moaning Air Waves' tendril and pulled it back inside the Science Lab. It freed Intelli, threw her to the ground, and pulled the Moaning Air Waves off the ground in order to punch it in the face with a glowing fist. It did that seven times before the Moaning Air Waves let out a fearful "Hyoo hyoo," flew out the window, and disintegrated into nothing. Uraraka would have loved to be happy about that, but in all likelihood, this new thing was just going to attack them next, so it wasn't exactly a good trade.  
  
The attack never came. The new creature turned its head—which looked like it was on fire—toward Uraraka and Intelli, uttered the words, "Been trying to reach you since yesterday" in a quiet voice, and flew out the window before fading out into nothingness.  
  
"I did it! I really got one of them! I'm not sure which of them were the actual Moaning Air Waves, but I still won!" Intelli shouted, standing up with triumph. "My first exploration into the unknown was a complete success! The thrills, the excitement, it's everything they talked about and more! Are the other six Wonders going to be like this, or will they keep upping the ante on me? I really, _really_ want to know!"  
  
As soon as Uraraka was able to get her head straight, she tugged on Intelli's sleeve and got her to stop whatever it was she was on about.  
  
"H-How did you find me?" Uraraka asked.  
  
"Elementary, my dear Uraraka-san. I just used my power to heighten my intelligence and—based off of body language, approximate weight, miniscule pieces of dirt on the floor, and fifteen other aspects you wouldn't understand—calculate where you would wander off to with ninety-eight percent accuracy. I got here right about when you started slipping into your regional dialect; I would have gotten closer, but I needed to line up my shot."  
  
"I guess that—wait, you heard that?!"  
  
"Yes. You also did it earlier today; said, 'Ah'm okay witthat,' or something of the sort. It was quite amusing, honestly."  
  
"Please ignore all of that!"  
  
"That's going to be hard."  
  
"D-Do it anyway! And why were you looking for me at all?"  
  
"Well, something about your expression and tone of voice when we parted ways seemed strange, and I needed to figure out what it was." Uraraka's face switched from being a flustered one to being one that was caught between happiness and confusion.  
  
["And?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPz47MKHDtY)  
  
"I apologize if I said anything that upset you earlier. Sometimes-Sometimes I get caught up in what I'm doing to the point that I just let things slip out without thinking, and then it's not until I use my powers to get everything in my head together that I know I messed something up. I'd understand if you wanted to put an end to our partnership."  
  
Uraraka stared at Intelli, the latter wearing an actual solemn expression. She closed her eyes, breathed in, breathed out, and opened her eyes once more.  
  
"It's-It's fine. Intelli-senpai, you said you were sorry, and that's more than anyone else at this school has ever done for me; because of that, even if you're difficult, you're probably the least difficult person here. Not only that, but I want to keep doing this. I want to keep doing this because you were right about me. More than anything, I want to be able to live in peace, but I think that for me, I won't be able to obtain true peace without being able to accomplish something in my life. So I want to keep working with you to uncover all of the Seven Wonders and become someone who can make their dreams come true!"  
  
There it was. That was all she had to say on the matter; nothing more, nothing less.  
  
"'There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory'; Sir Francis Drake. Your train of thought lines up with someone who could say something like that, so there's no way for it to be wrong; be proud of that. Furthermore…" Intelli brought Uraraka into a hug; much to her surprise, she didn't pass out on the spot. "I'm so happy you want to spend more time with me! Uraraka-san!"  
  
"Don't go mentionin' it," was something Uraraka managed to sputter out.

* * *

Intelli told Uraraka that she would inform her when it became time to go after the next Wonder. However, as there was no reason for them to not talk before then, they made plans to have lunch the following day and exchanged LINE IDs.  
  
Uraraka walked back to her dorm room with a smile. Having a dream of a dream was one thing, but for the first time in her life, she had a friend whom she exchanged LINE IDs with. An overly optimistic part of her wanted it to be enough to make the past thirteen years of her life null and void, but it wasn't good enough to do that. Not yet, at least.  
  
Nevertheless, Uraraka returned to her dorm room and found herself stopping in her tracks when she saw that the door was slightly ajar. Odd, considering that she knew she closed the door before leaving and that even if Aizen had come back from the library, which was unlikely, considering that it was barely past midnight, she would never leave the door open like that. There was someone else inside of her room: either a random person doing who knew what or one of the creatures from earlier doing who knew what.  
  
["Fine," ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1AgeROKUuA)Uraraka said. "If there's someone in there, then-then I'll take them on. I can do that now, I hope. If there's really someone in there, then there getting face full of the Ochaco Uraraka with six percent extra confidence!"  
  
Uraraka kicked her door open and mustered up the best martial arts pose she remembered from _Kickpuncher V: A Good Day to Punch Kicks_ , hoping that it would make the intruder feel as nervous as she felt. In an immediate instant, her nervousness was replaced with confusion when she saw the intruder and how odd they looked.  
  
The intruder was an adult woman sitting on top of her desk. Her skin was a pale white, but it didn't come across as sickly to Uraraka, just stylistic. She wore a red and black kimono patterned with birds and waves that was completely open around her sizeable chest. Nothing unseemly was exposed, however, as her inky black hair—which seemed to have a constant wave of light flowing down it like a waterfall—fell down and covered it up; the rest of her hair framed an angular face adorned with a pair of white sunglasses. The last addition to her appearance was a golden _kiseru_ which, after breathing into it, produced pitch-black bubbles.  
  
"Ochaco Uraraka," she stated in a voice that was both soft and booming. "I am the one called Katsushika Oui, but you may address me as Lady Hokusai, the Agent of Darkness. Tonight, you have set yourself in front of a myriad of paths. Each one has a different ending, but each one is undeniably paved with Doom. It would be wise to turn back, but it is already too late for you to do so. How do you choose to proceed?"  
  
"What?" was what Uraraka said after staring at the woman for thirty seconds. There was no response more appropriate than that.

* * *

[Most people at Dan'ichiro's age wanted to be fast asleep by midnight.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp8MHZFC6JU&t=2687s) Not Dan'ichiro; he lived for the night. This late at night, everyone was too tired to try and put up a mask for how they really are. Everyone's true selves could come out without being filtered through the annoying glow of caped crusaders. That kind of honesty was hard to come by in society, and Dan'ichiro always enjoyed it. With a few exceptions, naturally.  
  
"Should I go with flowers or chocolate?" Tamako asked, acting out one of those exceptions.  
  
"Well, what does she like?" Tsukauchi asked.  
  
"We haven't really gotten there yet, but that's what you do on a first date, right? Get them one or both of those?"  
  
"You're barking up the wrong tree, Nokogiri, because unless going with my little sister to a news media awards ceremony counts, then I haven't been on a date in a long time."  
  
"Me neither, but that's why I'm nervous. What if she can tell when we get together again? What if I bring flowers, but she also brings flowers, or the same with chocolate? Then there's just too much of either one! What do you think, Dan?"  
  
"I think you should both shut the hell up! And don't call me 'Dan' again if you know what's good for ya!" Tsukauchi nodded his head while Tamako just shrugged her shoulders. He would have barked at them more, but the three of them had walked all the way to the center of the playground where the crime scene lied.  
  
It had only been two minutes since the call went out, yet the area was already filled to the brim with police officers, and for a good reason: the victim was a sight to behold. Age: teens to early twenties; heavy lacerations at the arms and legs with large amounts of blood pooling out underneath; thick rope burns around the neck layered on top of each other, as if the murderer used more than one tool to strangle them; teeth were thrown about and broken in multiple places; extreme burns covered the body from head to toe.  
  
Tamako and Tsukauchi looked like they were going to be sick, with Tsukauchi looking like he was literally turning green. Dan'ichiro just stared at it with disgust, for he was looking at another exception he could live without.  
  
"The things people will do in this world, right, Dan'ichiro?" Dan'ichiro was approached by a man in a beige trench coat and pork pie hat, his face weathered from what Dan'ichiro knew to be years of experience with these kinds of revolting scenes that only Dan'ichiro and a select few could match him in.  
  
"Daizo, you old sonuvabitch," Dan'ichiro said, shaking his hand with a smile.  
  
"I didn't know he could do that," Tamako whispered. He was going to let that slide.  
  
"Good to see you too, old friend," Daizo said.  
  
"Knew you were stationed out in Den-en-chōfu these days, but I figured you were still workin' on that Brushogun nonsense."  
  
"Not nonsense, fact. Fact that, admittedly, has hit a bit of a snag, so I'm taking a break to run this operation."  
  
"You're in charge of this, Uehara-san?" Tsukauchi asked. "From what I recall, you specialize in serial criminals and murderers, so are you saying that this isn't an isolated incident?"  
  
"Indeed I am. You'll get the same report delivered to you momentarily, but this murder—this gruesome, tasteless act—matches a sporadic set of deaths that have occurred in the ward for quite some time now. There's no consistency with time or place, but the kind of brutality inflicted upon these people is too unique to not have all been from the same person. We're looking at a serial killer within the Ota ward, and one that is sure to strike again."  
  
"Oh my God."  
  
"'God', huh." Daizo looked up at the starry sky, the one pleasant thing there was to look at. "Yes, I wonder what _he_ has to say about this."  
  
If someone asked Dan'ichiro, he'd say that God's word didn't matter. The only word that mattered here was the confession of whoever or whatever would do something like this, and Dan'ichiro was going to make sure it was a good one, even if it killed him.  
  
He really hoped it wouldn't kill him.

* * *

**Shiritano Girls Academy**

**An academy which educates girls through junior high located in the Ota ward's Den-en-chōfu district. Admission cannot be done partway through the school system, and the school's standardized tests hover near the 99.7th. percentile.**

**The campus grounds were originally home to a** _**Koshintō** _ **shrine built by the ancient Jomon people of the surrounding area, but both the shrine and the people who worshipped at it were destroyed one day; textual and psychic records don't give any indication of the root cause, only that something "savage" was involved. The area went untouched until World War II, when the Imperial scientist known as the Dragon King used it as a training ground for dark magic until his disappearance from the War.**  
  
**The area remained untouched once more until 197X. At that time, the worldwide movements of female empowerment and LGBT support partially spearheaded by Wonder Woman were at their peak. Japan, having long since obtained a surplus of economic stability following the aftermath of World War II, sought to capitalize on both facts by constructing a place where young woman would be free to explore and develop their burgeoning young minds and bodies with the best tools and assistance that money could buy.**  
  
**Because of these origins, Shiritano Girls Academy has an unspoken rule of treating those who don't come from wealthy backgrounds as their lessers and beneath them, not unlike the social stigmata directed at the** _**burakumin** _ **. This rarely happens, however, as exorbitant tuition fees make earning the Outsiders Scholarship the only viable way for someone who isn't extraordinarily wealthy to enter the school, and the only way to earn the scholarship is to pass a test that even the country's top test takers would struggle with and rarely ever pass. As of 20XX, the test has a success rate of 1/600, and only incredible luck or outside intervention allow for a person to pass.**  
  
**While Shiritano Girls Academy is still a great school from an academic standpoint, the number of students has been decreasing over the years as Heroism has become more popular, since a fancy education—at least for junior high—isn't a requirement for becoming a Hero.**


End file.
